story, which it may not be disagreeable
to compare with this part of the British manners. "Ne vero regent ex
improviso adoriretur Ulafus, admoto sacculo suo, eundem quatere
coepit, carmen simul magicum obmurmurans, hac verborum formula:
Duriter increpetur cum tonitru; stringant Cyclopia tela; injiciant manum
Parcae; ... acriter excipient monticolae genii plurimi, atque gigantes ...
contundent; quatient; procellae ..., disrumpent lapides navigium
ejus...."--Hickesii Thesaur. Vol. II. p. 140.

[16] Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk.

[17] Rem Romanam huc satietate gloriae provectam, ut externis quoque
gentibus quietem velit.--Tacit. Annal. XII. 11.

[18] Nam duces, ubi impetrando triumphalium insigni sufficere res suas
crediderant, hostam omittebant.--Tacit. Annal. IV. 23.

[19] Sigonii de Antiquo Jure Provinciarum, Lib. 1 and 2.

[20] Cic. in Verrem, I.

[21] Duobus insuper inserviendum tyrannis; quorum legatus in sanguinem,
procurator in bona saeviret--Tacit. Annal. XII. 60.

[22] Ne vim principatus resolveret cuncta ad senatum vocando, eam
conditionem esse imperandi, ut non aliter ratio constet, quam si uni
reddatur.--Tacit. Annal. I. 6.

[23] Tacit. Annal. XV. 21, 22.

[24] The four roads they called Watling Street, Ikenild Street, Ermin
Street, and the Fosseway.

[25] Cod. lib. XII. Tit. lxii.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FALL OF THE ROMAN POWER IN BRITAIN.

[Sidenote: A.D. 117.]

After the period which we have just closed, no mention is made of the
affairs of Britain until the reign of Adrian. At that time was wrought
the first remarkable change in the exterior policy of Rome. Although
some of the emperors contented themselves with those limits which they
found at their accession, none before this prince had actually
contracted the bounds of the Empire: for, being more perfectly
acquainted with all the countries that composed it than any of his
predecessors, what was strong and what weak, and having formed to
himself a plan wholly defensive, he purposely abandoned several large
tracts of territory, that he might render what remained more solid and
compact.

[Sidenote: A.D. 121.]

[Sidenote: A.D. 140.]

This plan particularly affected Britain. All the conquests of Agricola
to the northward of the Tyne were relinquished, and a strong rampart was
built from the mouth of that river, on the east, to Solway Frith, on the
Irish Sea, a length of about eighty miles. But in the reign of his
successor, An